Our foster daughter is 16 months and her doc wants her to move from Alimentum to a toddler formula and I'm hoping someone here can help!

Her medical situation is not terribly complicated (compared to many of yours!)--just delayed gastric emptying, reflux, and milk and soy protein sensitivity so far--but it's enough to mean keeping her weight up is hard.

My problem with switching to a toddler formula is that so many of them are all sorts of fancy flavors. We've tried Elecare before, but she didn't like the intense vanilla. Now I've got samples of Neocate chocolate and tropical. Really we'd just like something that tastes a little like milk!!!

The Elecare unflavored is a really strong taste, so I understand why the vanilla has to be so intense. Is the unflavored Neocate like that too?

If she's 16 months, I would think you could skip the formula altogether and maybe work with a nutritionist to get her diet balanced with whole foods. You could use one of the fortified non-dairy milks like hemp milk or rice milk for a calcium-containing drink (I'm just assuming calcium is one of the main concerns.)

Mom to DD1 (10/07) and DD2 (3/11) I blog about our life with food allergies and eosinophilic disorders.

Unfortunately the gastric emptying and reflux issues mean we can't get enough solid food calories in her, so we need something pretty caloric...something she'll take out of a bottle in the middle of the night (she gets about 25% of her calories by bottle between bedtime and breakfast)

I got the neocate company to send us a can of unflavored and we'll see what we can do...

Could you maybe mix half formula and half some kind of other liquid (like almond rice or soy milk, whatever she likes and is allowed to have) to dilute the flavor? Maybe even 25%/75%.... But personally I don't think it's so necessary to switch formula, if she likes the one she's on, maybe she can have it a little longer? My doc is pushing for me to switch from infant formula (lactose free) to toddler formula or some kind of lactose free product because she says the infant formula has MORE calories than the toddler formula, but my daughter does not eat that much in solids (and has a very sensitive stomach, I am yet to figure out all her allergies, right now real milk is out, some cheese is out, some fruits are out.. she gets diarrhea, upset stomach, rash on her face easily), but she loves her Similac Sensitiveinfant Formula, so I am not really pushing her hard to switch, I feel like if she is getting all her calories , I don't want to do anything to decrease her intake, until I figure out all that she is allergic to, and she starts eating more. I have tried Lactaid but she doesn't like it as much as formula, so I am not rushing. My son was on formula until he was 3 (because he has food/texture aversion) and won't eat solids much. Now (4)he is not drinking any kind of milk product , only juice :(.